The two-way transmission of audio over an Internet protocol (IP) network is referred to as IP telephony. When used in a private Intranet or wide area network (WAN), it is generally known as “voice over IP”, or sometimes “VoIP”. When the public Internet is the transport vehicle, it is referred to as “Internet telephony,” however, both terms are used synonymously.
Private networks are able to provide from good to excellent quality for voice transmission, matching that of the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Over the Internet, voice quality varies considerably; however, protocols that support quality of service (QoS) are expected to improve this condition. Nevertheless, Internet telephony means free voice calls as long as sending and receiving users have identical software that uses proprietary techniques or compatible software that uses the H.323 standard. They must also be willing to talk from the personal computers (PCs) and to prearrange the times to talk. When users go online and launch their IP telephony client software, the session and current IP address is registered on a directory server on the Internet so that others may contact them.
Using Internet telephony service providers (ITSPs), users can make PC-to-phone or phone-to-phone calls, using the Internet as the network backbone. ITSPs have been initially popular for international calls. Another IP telephony application is one where call centers can answer a question directly from a Web site. This voice integration is desired by user and vendor alike and is expected to flourish in the future. The IP protocol is either being used or being considered for future network backbones by all major telecommunications carriers.
An Internet appliance is also sometimes called an “information appliance”, a “smart appliance”, and a “Web appliance”. An Internet appliance is a device specialized for accessing e-mail and/or other data from the Web. Designed for simplicity, the Internet appliance either plugs into a telephone jack, cable jack, or uses a wireless connection to the Internet. Internet television (TV) services (e.g., WebTV) are also sometimes called Internet appliances. However, Internet TV services are designed for stationary use in the home, whereas an Internet appliance is typically very portable. Internet appliances exist which combine telephone and browser functions. These Internet appliances may include voice-over-IP telephony function with methods for initiating a call from a web page “hot spot”. A web page hot spot is an icon or part of a larger image used as a hyperlink to another document or file. When the hot spot is clicked, the linked material is searched for and displayed. A hot spot may be part of a larger image. For example, an image may have several hot spots, one for each of its components. When clicked, a greater explanation of the component is produced. Where hot spots begin and end determines how easy they are to select.
Prior art Internet appliances, however, lack functionality to assure that the phone/browser appliance owner (person who “owns” the Internet appliance) is indeed the initiator of a call. This leaves the Internet appliance and the service open to identity-faking attacks which may result in unauthorized phone calls from the Internet appliance. If unauthorized phone calls occur over normal PSTN services, there could be considerable financial impact to the user and service provider. There also is no Internet appliance function to deal with incoming calls based upon origin of the call. Another deficiency with prior art Internet appliances, which provide telephony service, is that there is no way of ensuring that voice over IP telephony occurs between authorized nodes, especially in a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) environment. In fact, it is difficult to identify users for voice over IP telephony in a DHCP environment where IP addressing is not static.
Therefore there is a need for an Internet appliance that integrates telephone with security and guidance features.